Harold C. Lear Jr. (January 31, 1935 – June 25, 2016) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. A guard born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Lear starred at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptists, Baptist minister Russell Conwell an ...

in his hometown during the 1950s. He earned the

NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player At the conclusion of the NCAA men's and women's Division I basketball championships (the "Final Four" tournaments), a media panel selects a Most Outstanding Player (MOP). It is usually awarded to a member of the championship team. There have been ...

in 1956 after leading Temple to the Final Four, where they lost to the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

. After college, Lear was selected by the Philadelphia Warriors with the seventh pick of the 1956 NBA draft. His NBA career was brief, however: he appeared in just three games during the 1956–57 NBA season and scored four points. He played for the Easton Madisons of the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBL) and was named the league's

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

in 1957. He was a four-time selection to the All-EPBL First Team and two-time selection to the Second Team. In 2013, Temple retired his No. 6 jersey. Lear died on June 25, 2016 at his home in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = , subdivisi ...

after an illness.

References

1935 births 2016 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Philadelphia Warriors draft picks Philadelphia Warriors players Pittsburgh Rens players Point guards Temple Owls men's basketball players Basketball players from Philadelphia {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub